Ryan, Bentz off to golden starts

MECHANICSBURG - It's the first District 3 swimming championship for one and the last for another, and both got off to golden starts Friday.

Kuztown freshman Gillian Ryan made a memorable district debut with a record-setting swim in the 200 free and Wyomissing senior Brianna Bentz earned gold in her final try in the Class AA meet at Cumberland Valley.

Bentz also joined teammates Hailey Doyle, Caroline Edelman and Katie Duggan in a gold medal swim in the last event of the day, capping a haul of 22 medals for Berks swimmers on the first day.

Duggan also won silver in the 50 free and Bentz completed a busy day with a bronze in the 200 free.

Troutman and Andrew Strause each swam on both Panthers relays. Luke Raudenbush and Nick Leidy completed the medley and Isaac Beltran DelRio and Charlie Pletz were on the free.

Ryan not only beat defending champion Caroline Finkbeiner of Trinity, she broke the 3-AA record with her time of 1:49.46. Ryan had a slight lead after the first 50 yards, but gradually pulled away for a two-second win.

"I could see her, but I just wanted to swim my own race," said Ryan.

Ryan's time was 1.3 seconds better than the 2006 record set by East Pennsboro's Leah Gingrich, a current Texas All-American with four 3-AA records. But Ryan was most excited about swimming for Kutztown, which doesn't sponsor team swimming.

"This is absolutely exciting," said Ryan. "It's phenomenal. I just wanted to represent my school as well as I could."

That was also important to Block, who finished second in the 200 free for the second straight year.

"We wanted to come here and give our school some representation and hopefully have some success," said Block, whose time was 1:44.88. "I was hoping to win, but I wanted to make sure I had a good place for states."

Bentz was in a dead heat for first in the fly with Lancaster Catholic's Elizabeth Davis in 58.91.

"I don't think I've ever tied before," said Bentz. "It was really, really crazy, but exciting. I thought I out-touched her. I know I had her through 75, but those last five strokes I was so tired and she caught me."

But she had enough left to help the 200 free relay to a win in 1:39.03, giving her and Duggan relay golds in three straight years in different events, following the 400 free relay last year and the medley in 2009.

"This is our last hurrah, and we're trying to make the most of it," said Duggan, whose 24.78 in the 50 moved her up three spots from last year.

Mikitka swam the 200 free for his first-day event last year and finished fourth, and thought he could do better in the fly. He did, just missing out on a gold medal at the finish.

"I wanted to go 51.9, but that's my best time, so I'm happy with that," said Mikitka, who finished in 52.44.

Troutman, who didn't swim last year, finished with three first-day medals to put the Panthers in position to challenge for a championship.

"We've never won a district team title, so that's our goal," said Troutman.